Port Macquarie, NSW

We spent 2 full days in Port Macquarie (pronounced Ma-Quarry) and wanted to stay longer, in fact, we would have only everywhere was fully booked over that weekend as there was a junior football match on.
It is a fairly small town, but it is beautiful. We stayed in Ozzie Pozzie Backpackers, our first hostel outside Sydney & it impressed us a lot more than the city hostels!
We spent our first morning by the pool (yes, they have pools in non-Sydney hostels!!!!) as we’d had a 6 hour bus journey the night before so fancied a relax. It was also a really hot day and very humid.
In the afternoon, we walked to the waterfront & to the shops. It is a quiet town & feels very safe. People are really friendly here. Lots of backpackers miss it out because it’s not as famous but they’re missing out on cheaper, higher quality accommodation in a pretty location.
In the evening you can see bats flying in the thousands. It was my first time seeing bats & I was astounded at just how many there were.

On day 2, we went on a coastal walk past the painted rocks and we even saw a sea turtle in the water though my photo doesn’t show it very clearly. The painted rocks are opposite a campsite & public park, skatepark, field & beach.
The coastal walk wasn’t too difficult physically, however it was a really hot day so we had to drink plenty of water. Luckily, in Australia they have drinking fountains & free water refilling stations in almost every public space so you don’t need to spend a lot of money buying water all of the time.

The coastal walk led us to the Koala Hospital which had a free tour at 3pm. We got there at about half 2 so had a little look around before the tour started. The tour was very informative. We were only allowed to see the permanent residents of the hospital as the koalas who are just being treated for more minor injuries need as little human contact as possible so that they can return to the wild.
Many of the permanent residents were in for one of two reasons. Either, they had been in a bush fire and their claws were now unable to climb trees making it impossible for them to survive in the wild or they had chlamydia which had been left untreated for too long that by the time they got to the hospital they would lose their sight.
|| Related: Port Macquarie Koala Hospital ||
After the koala hospital, we went back to the field near the painted rocks to cool off in the shade before having a relaxing night in the hostel before our early bus to Coffs Harbour.
Have you ever visited Port Macquarie?
Bex